Kamado Report: Kenshin Kawakami

December 27, 1:54 PMAsian-American Sports ExaminerMichael Street

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Kawakami has a fiery, competitive spirit. (AP Photo/Kyoto News)

Earlier this year, Jim Allen of the Daily Yomiuri wrote a column for ESPN on this year's Japanese free agent market. Though he admitted this year's class lacked the big-name luster of years past, at the top of his list was the decorated veteran pitcher Kenshin Kawakami of the Chunichi Dragons.

Kawakami offers many tangible and intangible assets to any American team that might want to sign him, including a career line of 112-72 in eleven years in Japan, with a 3.32 ERA, and 1.15 WHIP, and a beautiful ratio of 1328 Ks and 351 BBs in 1642.3 IP.

Beyond those outstanding numbers, Kawakami is said to have the best cutter in Japanese baseball, to go with a modest 92 MPH fastball, curve, slider, and forkball. Since Japanese baseball tends to feature more breaking balls than fastballs, Kawakami knows how to use his offspeed and breaking pitches, and his control has been outstanding.

NPB Tracker, an excellent site about Japanese baseball players, has a scouting report on Kawakami here.

In Japan, he's had his share of awards, too, including a record eight player-of-the-month awards, 1998 Rookie of the Year, 2004 League MVP, the same year he also won the Sawamura Award (Japan's Cy Young). In 2002, he tossed a no-no against Hideki Matsui and the perennial powerhouse Yomiuri Giants, and helped his team to the 2007 Japan Series crown, the Dragons' first league championship since 1954.

This winning tradition points to some of Kawakami's less tangible qualities: his tenacity and desire to win and his resilience under pressure. He succeeded last year in spite of mild back problems, and always has fought through adversity, particularly with a  team like the Dragons, which manages to put up winning seasons while rarely coming out on top.

Kawakami's best asset to mid-market teams is likely financial: with more than nine seasons under his belt, he's a free agent and not subject to the pricy posting system, where MLB teams must compensate his parent club for the right to negotiate with him. This cuts his signing price in half, as history has shown posting fees to be roughly equivalent to the MLB contracts the players eventually sign.

Not that Kawakami's contract targets are all that modest. Often compared to the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda, he's looking for something in the neighborhood of what Los Angeles paid Kuroda: 3 years and $35M. That's not chump change, particularly for a player who's 33 years old and whose innings have declined in each of the past two years, from a career-best 215 in 2006 to 167.3 in 2007 and 117.3 last season.

The shorter seasons and six-man rotations employed in Japanese leagues mean that workloads are lighter, so those inning totals are not as alarming as they might appear, but they are still not great indicators of long-term success. HIstorically speaking, Japanese pitchers do better as relievers than starters, either because—as older pitchers—they're better able to handle the diminished workload of a reliever, or because—as pitchers relying on breaking pitches—they do better when major-league batters only get one chance to hit their stuff.

Either way, Kawakami's long-term durability is of some concern, which is undoubtedly why he's not making the big splash that, say Dice-K made, even if his skill set and performance record is not too far behind Matsuzaka's. According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the Orioles are very close to signing Kawakami, although the Mets, Cardinals, Red Sox, Twins and Braves are also in the running.

If Kawakami follows the lead of Junichi Tazawa, he might forego a more lucrative deal in order to play for the Red Sox, who offer a more Asian-friendly environment and winning tradition. While the Braves are very interested in a starte like Kawakami, and have money after losing out on Furcal and AJ Burnett, their 3-year, $21M offer falls well short of the perceived minimum, though it's apparently the same as the offer Boston is preparing. The Twins would also be unlikely to meet his financial demands, and would have to move one of their five young starters via a trade if they do sign him. And neither Atlanta nor Minnesota are likely to be strong contenders next year.

The Cardinals poked a tentative toe into Japanese pitching waters earlier this month by signing Katsuhiko Maekawa, who might never crack a major-league roster, and Kawakami might want to be the trailblazing pitcher for that storied franchise; St. Louis are also likely to contend in 2009. The Mets will also be extremely competitive in a tough NL East next year and have had quite a few Japanese players on their roster in the past, though Kawakami might not enjoy the spotlight of New York (plus their Japanese players have never amounted to much in a Mets uniform).

Wherever he ends up, Kawakami is likely to be a mid-rotation starter, but if he can succeed on the level of Kuroda, who pitched several important games for the Dodgers down the stretch, he will help the cause of other Japanese starters who reach free agency. American teams have often touted the services of wily, durable veteran starters—there's no reason they can't find the same thing in Japan.